Suspect in UCI Hate E-Mail Case Denied Bail

A Los Angeles judge has ordered that a former UC Irvine student accused of sending death threats by electronic mail be held without bail because he is considered a flight risk.

Richard Machado, 19, was arrested last month in Arizona as he walked across the border from Mexico, police said. On Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge James W. McMahon ordered that Machado be held without bail.

Machado is to be arraigned Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elgin Edwards in Santa Ana, Thom Mrozek, a spokesman with the U.S. attorney’s office, said Thursday.

In November, a grand jury indicted Machado on 10 counts of civil rights violations in connection with a message that contained a threat to “hunt . . . down and kill” Asians on campus. The indictment is the nation’s first federal prosecution of a hate crime committed in cyberspace.

The e-mail message, signed “Asian-hater,” was sent Sept. 20 from a computer lab at UC Irvine. About 49 students and staff members received it, campus police said.

Police and the FBI said Machado cooperated during the investigation. But after the indictment, a roommate at Machado’s Irvine apartment told an FBI agent who appeared with a summons that Machado had stolen his car and disappeared. He was declared a fugitive when he missed his Nov. 25 arraignment.

Ten weeks later, Machado was stopped by U.S. Customs agents at a border crossing in Nogales, Ariz. He was arrested after they learned his identify and discovered the outstanding warrant. He was transferred to a federal prison in Tucson. Earlier this week, he was transferred to Los Angeles for his court hearing Wednesday, Mrozek said.